


Pay No Attention To The Man Behind The Curtain

by ChingKittyCat



Category: Hoshi no Kaabii | Kirby: Right Back at Ya!, Kirby - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Drabble, Gen, Not Beta Read, Series Finale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-13
Updated: 2019-03-13
Packaged: 2019-11-16 12:26:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,986
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18094286
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChingKittyCat/pseuds/ChingKittyCat
Summary: Maybe eNeMeE was always cast in shadow, never to be seen, for a reason.





	Pay No Attention To The Man Behind The Curtain

   The Halberd had a bumpy way in, but the insides of NME were quite the contrary to their outsides. The clean whiteness, the largeness of the halls and the lacking in visible weaponry caused all onboard the Halberd to prickle with anxiety.

   "We're in the belly of the beast." Sword commented.

   "EIUHerogtijEIortgetguiHErghuiehIWEJWJRGIOEHRGERgtsorihgogtijiohergut." Blade added.

   Meta Knight nodded solemnly at Blade's deduction. They couldn't let their guard down just because it was quiet, it could be a trap. Though, something in Meta Knight especially was.. Frightened. His hands had refused to stop shaking, even when balled into fists. Thankfully, they were hidden behind his cape.

   "I-I don't like this, it's too quiet!"

   Kawasaki whimpered from the guest seats. A few of the other Cappys who'd tagged along shared his sentiment with quiet, worried mumbles or general silence. Tiff held her jaw open, as did Tuff and Kirby as they looked out the window to see a whole long hall of nothing.

   "I must admit some fault.." Meta Knight began slow, figuring it had to be said even though it would do nothing to calm anyone down, "I do not know what exactly we are facing."

   "You what?"

   Tiff was even more visibly frightened now, and Kirby kept close to her to keep himself from a deeper amount of fear.

   "eNeMeE.. I have never seen him before, not even in the most desperate times of war. No one outside of this company likely knows what he looks like, or just how strong he truly is."

   Meta Knight explained, making the concerned mumbles turn into shocked silence.

   "We will have a fight beyond fights prepared for us, and I am unsure if all of you will come back alive."

   "You already said that when we got on this ship."

   Tuff stated, trying to wipe away the tension through sass. It didn't work very well, note his pale face. He only hoped that someone else would find some humor in it and add onto it, but no one else did.

   "We face a force not even war could bring forward.. We will have to take pride in being the ones who dragged eNeMeE out of the dark and into the light of justice."

   Meta Knight spoke stoically, but even he, through his words of motivation, didn't exactly believe what he was hearing.

   "Hah!" Dedede scoffed, despite being just as scared himself, "I ain't afraid of nothing! I seen that eNeMeE with my own two eyes; he always is sittin' right behind that salesguy!"

   "Sire, I don't think that's actually him.." Escargoon piped up, "They're just digital images they put behind him."

   "I seen the silohet of him."

   Dedede's confidence was not infectious. It was even less infectious when the sound of something closing made its noise loud and clear to the people on the ship. Sword tapped on some stuff on his console, bringing up a rear view camera to show that a door had closed behind them; sealing their way to the outside. Immediately after that door was shut, guns produced themselves from the walls and fired at all angles towards the ship.

   With a quick maneuvering of the ship, they'd moved in-between the walls to be shielded from the laser bullets, the ship already having been riddled with blasts before.

* * *

 

   The Halberd had gone down, Kirby had gotten on a Wing Star trying to search for wherever Dedede and Escargoon had taken Tiff, and Kit Cosmos, Tokkori, and Kawasaki had finished planting the bombs. All that was left to do was to blow the empire up.. And kill its founder.

   One problem.

   "Where is he?"

   Meta Knight almost sounded annoyed, key word being almost. He sounded like he'd been stood up after having a meal with a friend and now he had to foot the bill for the absentee person lest he be forced to wash dishes in the back room to make up for the food's cost.

   Meta Knight had been feverishly looking around the entire time they were running towards what could only be described as a 'control tower'. Kirby flew alongside them on his Wing Star, still missing Tiff.

   They all had burst into the room to see Dedede, still holding Tiff by the arm, Escargoon, and the salesman. Said salesman now looked a lot less confident than he was when he was behind the saftey of a screen. In fact, upon seeing Meta Knight, he bolted. However, Meta Knight was plenty faster. When Meta Knight got in his way, he'd run the other way, only to get cut off by Kirby.

   "I want to speak to your boss."

   Meta Knight was interrogative, approaching the salesman in a manner only threatening when one considered that he was armed and also a war vet. The salesman cowered, retreating back further from the knight to the point where he'd tumbled over his own big purple feet and straight onto his nonexistant butt.

   "Where is he." Meta Knight continued, the other squabbling away from him on the floor.

   "I-I, uh, he's, he's-"

   Collective gasp in the room.

   "He's right there!"

   Kawasaki shouted, pointing behind them to a large, dark, shadowy cloaked figure. Meta Knight whipped around immediately, pulling out Galaxia quicker than he thought was possible. He'd unleashed a Sword Beam directly at the dark tyrant, slicing him in half on a diagonal line.

   The cardboard cutout of a dark figure fell over, clattering on the floor uselessly.

   Meta Knight stared at the cardboard. Everyone seemed to stare at it emptily, trying to process what exactly they were seeing. The silence was broken when the salesman tried to scamper off, the squeaks of his feet snapping Meta Knight back to attention. He'd got infront of the other again, pushing him back onto the floor and pushing the tip of his sword in the fellow's face.

   "Where is he."

   "He.. He's out! He's o-on paid vacation, he's not- please don't hurt me!"

   The fellow's tone switch compared to earlier in the day was enough to make Dedede laugh in the background, satisfied with the show of karma.

   "You have been under attack for the past half hour and he hasn't bothered to come protect his own empire? Sounds like he doesn't care about if you get hurt or not."

   Kit Cosmos was skeptical, perhaps just as much as Meta Knight was. They'd both fought in the same war, lost friends to someone who now wasn't even bothering to show up to his own coup.

   "I want you to get him on the phone," Meta Knight grabbed the salesman by the collar, dragging him over the controls and machines he most likely manned when he wasn't being interrupted by intruders, "and I want to see him on the big monitor. I want to see the man who took so many in the war. Now."

   Meta Knight forced the salesman into his seat, keeping the sword close to him.

   "Meta Knight, we don't have time for this!" Kit Cosmos griped.

   "It's remote and ten seconds, not timed."

   Meta Knight shot back, the coconut quieting down as he went and prepared the transporter to get back home. Sword and Blade decided to help him, meanwhile the salesman looked like he was about near ready to faint from just how frightened he was. The man was far too pale and far too shaky to do anything other than just sit there and stew in his own horror at being a hostage.

   "Look at 'em, he's shakin' like a bone!"

   "I believe the phrase is shaking like a leaf, sire."

   "Nah."

   Dedede and Escargoon quipped, meanwhile Meta kept his eyes on the man he'd kept paralyzed. He'd barely even registered Tiff had come over, seemingly to get a closer look at whatever Meta Knight was doing, maybe even to see what the salesman was doing. Which, well, wasn't much of anything.

   "You are testing our patience."

   Meta Knight reminded, causing the man to sheepishly jolt to life and push some buttons on the computerized system he had. None of them seemingly did anything, though when Meta saw him reaching his seat, he was quick to push the blade closer to him, getting the tip on the skin and pushing.

   "You are not going to push that alarm button under your chair."

   He warned. The man receded his hand, knowing better than to disobey. Little did the salesman know, Meta Knight didn't actually plan to stab him or anything because there were kids in the room. They didn't need to see that.

   After a whole lot of nothing, Meta Knight's impatience grew to fury.

   "Where is he." Meta Knight hissed.

   "He doesn't exist.."

   The salesman whimpered, wheezing after his admittance. Meta Knight was quiet for a moment, trying to wrack his brain for some sort of comeback. Meta Knight eventually dragged the salesman out of the chair by his arm, down onto the floor again. He perhaps did it a little too harshly because the guy almost hit his head on the control board when he came down.

   "Are you the highest employee in this company?" Meta Knight inquired, keeping the sword on him.

   "P-Please don't hurt me."

   "Are you the highest employee in this company?" Meta Knight pushed again, a little more insistent.

   "Meta Knight.." Tiff mumbled, snapping Meta Knight out of his daze of aggression and interrogation, "Why is this so important, why're you being so rough with him?"

   "If eNeMeE does not exist, then his actions need to be passed onto someone. Someone needs to be responsible for what even the concept of eNeMeE did. I need to know if that responsibility falls onto this man or onto someone else we don't know about. There needs to be justice for the war and the good people who were lost in it."

   Meta Knight didn't bother to look at her. If he had, he would've noticed her solemn, agreeing nod. Kirby, meanwhile, was busy sitting on the transporter with everyone else, ready and waiting for Meta Knight to finish his torture session.

   "Answer me." Meta Knight redirected his verbal attention to the salesman.

   "T-There's, there's ch-chairmen, a-and-"

   "Does your position control what the fictional entity eNeMeE does."

   "N-No!"

   "You do run the control center, don't you. You control things, including him. That's why you have a cardboard cutout of him behind you in this room. You control him and the things this fictional character does."

   It was quiet as the other man stumbled over his words, trying to formulate something to say but failing. Meta Knight made a hand gesture towards Blade. Blade, seemingly knowing what it meant, chucked his sword at the fellow knight. Meta'd caught it and he stuck it straight into the sleeve salesman's suit, stabbing straight through the fabric and into the computer desk behind him.

   The other man struggled and gasped, gripping at the sword that'd missed the flesh of his arm.

   "The galaxy will be a lot safer without you, eNeMeE. Goodbye."

   Meta Knight removed himself, sheathing Galaxia and folding his cape. He'd taken off towards the transporter, which now was crackling with electricity and teleporting them away. He'd faintly pressed a remote button in his cloak, beginning the ten second countdown to remove himself from the base.

   "W-Wait! I'm innocent, I-I'm not eNeMeE, I don't decide anything! I didn't do anything! Don't leave me here!"

   The salesman pleaded, getting a sympathetic look back from Tiff. He'd struggled with the sword stuck in his suit, trying to remove it but failing. She knew that in no way was this man innocent, but other things told her that he'd committed too many atrocities in the name of capitalism and the nonexistent eNeMeE.

   With not much time left anyways, she doubted she would've been able to help him in the span of ten seconds anyways. She'd gone through the transporter, leaving eNeMeE and his empire to explode behind her.


End file.
